Forty-two events took place in eighteen countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, USA, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, South Africa and the United Kingdom – and a great time was had by all!

Top honours must go to Kranj, Slovenia, where they had a massive turnout of two-hundred and thirty-two runners who ran between 2.5km and 10km! Additional activities included barefoot training sessions, a kids’ run, a raffle draw and much trying-on of Vivobarefoot and Vibram shoes. Their youngest participant was 18 months old and the oldest 83 years. The event received extensive coverage on several TV and radio stations and in the newspapers. Awesome work Marko!

Ten events were held in the United States.

Six people attended Ken Bob's run on a hot sunny day at Huntington Beach California, where they ran 2 to 4 miles at low tide, followed by a picnic of wine, water, nuts, dates, figs, oranges, and pears. Lauren, Sockwa representative Ashley, Marlin, Don, Lauren (another one) and Ken Bob were joined by Ken Bob’s dog, Herman and Herman’s friend, Stuey.

Five barefoot runners of the Pennsylvania Chapter ran the 'Joseph Plumb Martin Trail' around Valley Forge National Historic Park in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Mike, Lara, Alyson, Joseph and Duane ran the 5 mile loop in light rain and a cool breeze. After the run, all runners adjourned to a local Indian restaurant for lunch.

Not to be left out and to show solidarity with his fellow PA Chapter members, Bfsailor ran on his own in Erie, at the opposite side of Pennsylvania, also in light rain.

Wind and rain didn't stop these barefooters!

At Burns Park, Ann Arbor, the Michigan Chapter was assigned a prime spot close to the start and finish lines for their super-cool Honda Element decked out in magnetic BRS signs and banner. Members Longboard and Diane ran the 5K barefoot, but the star of the day was minimalist runner and brand new BRS member Joe, who took first place ... a full minute ahead of second!

David appropriately represented the BRS in Milford, Delaware by taking second place in his age group and then celebrating with lots of Bloody Marys!

Georgia Chapter met up at Stone Mountain. In attendance were Michael, Jim, Dave, Terry, Cole, Casey, and BRS President TJ, who did a walk/run mile to and from the children's playground with her boys Cole and Casey, while the others ran the five mile route around the mountain. Members stayed on afterwards to eat, watch a 4D movie, ride the tram to the top of the mountain - the largest exposed piece of granite in the world, and play at the Geyser Water Park, the Sky Walk and in the Big Barn.

Adolfo did a 3.8 mile run in Raleigh, North Carolina. Nice pose Adolfo!

Barefootmatt was the only biped runner at the Reynoldsburg event, but was by no means the only barefoot runner out that morning, as he ran alongside five deer, two grey squirrels, two rabbits, a cat, an Eastern bluebird, a cardinal and countless robins. Sounds like a scene straight from Disney Matt!

Two events took place in San Diego. The Safari Park Half Marathon and 10K had at least four barefoot runners (Marco, Joe, Henry, and one other) and other BRS members got together for a run in the afternoon (Vijay, Glen, Emilie and Henry, with Vijay's kids along for the ride.)

On a cool morning in the San Francisco Bay area, four members did a 10K run in Redwood Regional Park in Oakland. The park is ideal for barefoot running with soft single-track trails covered with decomposing redwood needles. Barefoot Terry, NorCal Will, Barefoot Bone Rod and JJHenry all conquered the challenge of long, steep hills for the first half of the run, followed by a mostly downhill, but not as soft underfoot run back to the finish line.

Five participants attended an event in St Louis, Missouri for a 2.3 mile run, and wish to give a big shout out to Primal Living STL for their support!

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Four events took place in France.

Three participants attended a 5K barefoot run in Belleville organised by Hnes.

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Seven participants attended a 10K barefoot run in Lyon organised by Emmanuel Pillet and Frédéric Seguy.

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A full day’s session at the Suzanne Lenglen stadium in Issy-les-Moulineaux organised by French Chapter President Christian Harberts started with a brief introduction to the many new faces amongst twenty participants. A short barefoot warm-up was then followed by barefoot track exercises and a few laps of the park, and sessions of TrailBall Play Zen and Speed.

Runner Lambda ran the 12km Foulées Sanaryennes Trail Run in Sanary-sur-Mer in bare feet with only one aim in mind; to promote barefoot running on IBRD, The race was a series of steep climbs and descents, and right-angle turns, which Lambda completed in 1 hour 11 minutes.

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Australia was represented by five runners who gathered at the Grange Jetty, Adelaide on a calm and sunny day, and ran 4km on the pavement to Henley Beach Jetty and returned along the beach. After the run, Neil, Cathy, David, Michael and MovNat trainer Zac headed for the local cafe for coffee and breakfast.

Four events took place in the UK.

The main event took place in Stanmer Park, Brighton. The day started with a fun run for the kids before twenty-nine runners took part in a 5K race, which was won by Joe Addison in a time of 23 minutes 49 seconds. Tracy of Barefoot Britain supplied all runners with vegan gingerbread medals and Anna and David from Barefoot Running UK magazine mingled with the crowd, taking pictures and gathering stories.

The Scottish event was hosted by Colin McPhail of Footworks in Edinburgh.

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The Welsh event was a barefoot 10K which took place in conjunction with Amis Sans Shoes in support of Care International UK. Two runners, Paul and Mark ran at Oxwich Bay on the beautiful Gower Peninsular, on a varied selection of paths and textures including a final sprint of 2.5k to the finish line along the smooth sand of the beach at low tide. The lovely sunny day was topped off by coffee and cake at the local cafe.

In Northern Ireland, IBRD took place on the Bank Holiday Monday, when Andy, Tim and Simon took on the Belfast Marathon. This got a lot of interest from the local media with TV interviews, live on-air radio interviews and newspaper articles. This was Andy's first marathon, Tim's second and Simon's fourth (but first barefoot.) Andy crossed the line in 4 hours 36 minutes, closely followed by Simon, with Tim having to pull out at mile 22. Well done guys! You three must take the honours for the biggest achievement on IBRD!

In Brussels, Belgium, twenty barefoot runners ran 1.6km and six barefoot runners ran 10km, which we are told was broadcast in "Tous s'explique" on Belgian TV (RTL) on May 15th.

The Czech & Slovak Republic held their first ever IBRD event this year in Prague, where civic association Bosa turistika o.s. in cooperation with Vivobarefoot Concept Store held an interesting program for runners. Details were reported on TV, radio and in newspapers.

Two events were held in Germany.

Seven people attended in Aachen, and say they all learned something and had fun together!

In Marburg, a barefoot running workshop was hosted for the second year by Marburg Running School (MRS) where Martin and co-instructor Tabea joined fourteen others at the public stadium. Ages ranged from 21 to 56 years, including four attendees who had no previous experience of barefoot running.

Six people ran 3.5km around Songsvann in Oslo, Norway, including some who said that they would never have ever done this run if they had to do it alone.

Two events took place in Mexico.

Mexico Chapter President, BarefootJL did a 16km run in his hometown of Hermosillo; nine kilometres in huaraches, and the rest barefoot.

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In Mexico City, El Yuca Descalzo joined the ESPN Half Marathon and did thirteen kilometres in Vibram KSO EVOs and the rest barefoot, finishing in 2 hours and 16 minutes. Well done Yuca!

Last but certainly not least, two events took place in India.

In Ahmedabad, the first barefoot running event of its kind in India was hosted by "The Endorphins" with more than one-hundred and fifty barefoot runners participating from many different parts of the country. Congratulations Ameet! Very well done.

… and the final honours go to Jitendra and Abhie, who ran together in Kalyan-Maharashtra

Excellent !
It wasn't all that long ago that IBRD was just an idea being discussed, and look at it now!
Thanks for the summery Paul.
Job well done!

We talked about this stuff at that other place, then I think a little here, but it didn't come to fruition until Jamie Lee (Paleo) brought it up again, and I said it you will coordinate it, then we'll do it. Thank you, Jamie!

________________________

"Go! I am sending you out ...do not take sandals." ~Jesus

“What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize that the foot is more noble than the shoe?” ~Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

"The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art." ~Leonardo da Vinci

"How one runs probably is more important than what is on one’s feet, but what is on one’s feet may affect how one runs." ~Dr. Daniel Lieberman

"Barefoot is the default." ~Bare Lee

"Shoes do no more for the foot than a hat does for the brain." ~Dr. Mercer Rang

Great report Paul!
Very proud to be part of this international group!
Unfortunately, circumstances didn't allow me to run more than two miles to and from my office. Hopefully next year I'll be able to get in a proper run and take a pic or two.

This report has been submitted to Barefoot Running magazine, hopefully for inclusion in the next edition. If anyone has any other ideas or suggestions for submission to the magazine, please let me know